The telephone survey, conducted from Sept. 13-16, has a 4 percent margin of error and changed from the May Suffolk University poll which showed Brown leading over Warren, 48 percent to 47 percent.

“The Democratic National Convention appears to have connected the dots for some voters in Massachusetts,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston in a statement. “They’ve linked Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Warren and Congressional candidate Joseph Kennedy, whose district includes Southeastern Mass. Warren benefited not only from her own speech, but from the oratory of others, both inside and outside of Massachusetts.”

The Suffolk University poll concluded that while Brown's favorability remained steady, his support from voters who say they are voting for President Barack Obama is declining, 19 percent in the current poll compared to 24 percent in May. Democratic enthusiasm for Obama's re-election campaign could be the boost Warren needs to overcome her lack of appeal to independents, which make up 52 percent of the state's electorate.

“Fresh off a new TV ad buy and a prime time convention speech, Elizabeth Warren has improved her popularity and overtaken Scott Brown head-to-head,” Paleologos said. “She enters the debate phase of the Senate campaign as the slight favorite, but the race is still fluid, and to win she must avoid peaking too soon.”

The final stretch of the election season involves four televised debates between Brown and Warren in which voters will have the opportunity to see how they handle themselves when directly challenged by each other, rather than through dueling narratives reported in the news.

The TV debates include one hosted by WBZ-TV, the Boston CBS affiliate, this coming Thursday; another hosted by the University of Massachusetts-Lowell on Oct. 1; a debate in Springfield hosted by a Western Massachusetts media consortium on Oct. 10; and a Boston media consortium debate to be held on Oct. 30.

Stick with MassLive.com and The Republican for the latest on the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts and all your election year news coverage.

The data tables and press release from the new Suffolk University/WHDH News 7 poll can be downloaded here.